Banned

Remember last year when Universal released their Monster Legacy series of all the old horror classics?

As many will recall these were on double-sided discs and there were endless problems with damaged discs due to them not being packaged properly and sliding about loose in the packaging.

Well, this month Universal have released The Hammer Horror Collection. This consists of eight movies on two double-sided discs - and guess what?

Yup - first disc out of the box was scratched and locks up on chapter 14 of Curse of the Werewolf.

There's usually no problem getting them exchanged, but, as most retailers have something like a 30 day period in which you have to inform them of any faults, it means that you have to watch all the movies in quick succession and not at your leisure.

Not too bad when its just one movie you have to check, but this week alone from Amazon I've taken delivery of The Hammer Horror Collection (8 movies), Frasier Season 6 (24 episodes), Cheers Season 6 (24 episodes), Smallville Season 4 (24 episodes) and about half a dozen individual movies. Oh - and two further packages of discs will be arriving from them next week (it's that time of the year! ).

So, if I want to find any faulty discs and get them replace within the 30 day period, then I've got a hell of a lot of TV viewing to do in the next four weeks.

Had an argument over this very point with DVD Soon last year. I had bought an Outer Limits TV series box set from them almost six months before, and was just watching the occasional episode at my leisure and working my way slowly through the collection. Then one day I found that the last disc wouldn't load on any of three different DVD players. Not a mark on it - clearly an authoring fault.

DVD Soon refused to exchange the disc because the 30 day period had passed. What really annoyed me is that they wouldn't take my customer record into consideration. At that time I was ordering heavily, buying 10-12 discs per week from them. I pointed out that I couldn't possibly view every disc immediately on receiving it. I also pointed out that with a TV series box set, not everyone will sit down and watch it in two or three sittings, but rather would "dip into it" at their leisure.

But, no dice.

Luckily MGM (Region 1) were more understanding and arranged a speedy replacement.

I think that retailers should be more flexible with incidents of this nature - especially with customers that buy in large quantities from them. DVD viewing is a leisure activity. It ceases to be that if you have to force feed yourself within a fixed time limit just to be sure you haven't got defective product.

Ancient Oriental proverb: "Correct the wise man and he will thank you. Correct the fool and he will attack you."

Guest

I completely agree with you The Pauley about this. I often worry about my DVDs not working as I don't like to watch things straight away but when the mood takes me, so I can get more enjoyment out of it. I'm exactly the same with TV DVDs, I like to dip in and out of a box-set and it can sometimes take me a year before I finish. I open my DVDs upon receipt and look for scratches or Marks. If there is none I tend to put it on the shelf to view it whenever, if the disc is marked or scratched they tend to try to watch it within a week or two

Personally I think we shouldn't have to worry about this and retailers/manufacturers should replace the DVDs which have problems without any fuss

Well-known Member

I don't want to sound all high-and-mighty, because I completely understand Pauley's problems.

What I do is this: whenever I buy a new DVD (which is pretty rare these days), I check the disc either in-store, or as soon as it arrives in the post, for any visible defects. If there are any, I make a note of them.

Then I test-run the disc: I check to see that I can access each of three randomly chosen chapters on the disc, make sure all the menus work correctly, and make sure that the DVD appears to work correctly.

I've weeded out no-end of bad/faulty discs, that have either arrived scratched to hell in their packaging, through lousy DVD company staff not paying more attention to placing the discs in their cases properly, and discs that have looked okay, but then wouldn't play correctly.

If you can do this, on at least some of the discs you buy, this will help you out in the long run.

Obviously, no one should expect you to play all the discs in a multiple-disc boxed set, as soon as you get them, because that isn't feasible. Also, you should point out that under the Sale of Goods Act in the UK, an item has to:

- be suitable for its intended purpose, AND
- if any faults develop within a reasonable time, then the company you bought them from is legally required to exchange the faulty item for a working one

This still applies - probably even more so nowadays - in the Distance Selling Regulations.

Try using that legislation, next time you complain, and companies should start being more cautious about hacking-off their customers!

Well-known Member

Actually the legal stuff should work for international orders as well, as the Distance Selling Regulations specifically apply to items bought over the internet, from both your own and external countries equally!

However, actually getting a DVD company to sort out a replacement or refund, could prove harder than anything else. My recommendation, is to stick to the big name companies like PlayUSA, Movietyme, et al, who have a good reputation amongst people in the AVForums.

Active Member

Actually the legal stuff should work for international orders as well, as the Distance Selling Regulations specifically apply to items bought over the internet, from both your own and external countries equally!

However, actually getting a DVD company to sort out a replacement or refund, could prove harder than anything else. My recommendation, is to stick to the big name companies like PlayUSA, Movietyme, et al, who have a good reputation amongst people in the AVForums.

Pooch

Click to expand...

Where's a good place to look for info about Distance Selling Regulations as I've got a problem with my R3 Butterfly Effect. The DC disc is fine up until chptr 20, I think and then it freezes. It seems that there are no chapters after the bit involving a baseball bat. The TC disc is fine all the way through. It was purchased from Koreandvds in May/June time.

Well-known Member

Whatever the faulty item is has to be dealt with by the company you imported the DVD from. They should (ideally) replace it, if it's genuinely faulty, and they've been notified of the issue within a "reasonable time limit". It's up to them, then, what they do. If they do replace it/refund you, then they will then have to send the faulty item back onto the company who sold them the DVD itself.

Under English Law (not Scottish or Irish law), a "reasonable time limit" is never defined. The sooner you let the company you bought the DVD from, of the situation, the better. But you will have a fight on your hand, especially as you will have to try and prove that you didn't unwrap/unseal the DVD until ages after you were sent it, AND that the fault was pre-existing.

Good Luck, but you may have to put this one down to a learning experience!